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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §9.1.3.pr

Injury to a Free Person by an Animal and Damages

Passage 1514 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Gaius explains that an action can be brought under the law when a free person is injured by an animal, clarifying that the assessment of damages excludes physical deformity but includes medical expenses and lost services.

[GAIUS libro septimo ad edictum prouinciale. ] §9.1.3.prEx hac lege iam non dubitatur etiam liberarum personarum nomine agi posse, forte si patrem familias aut filium familias uulnerauerit quadrupes: scilicet ut non deformitatis ratio habeatur, cum liberum corpus aestimationem non recipiat, sed impensarum in curationem factarum et operarum amissarum quasque amissurus quis esset inutilis factus.
[GAIUS, from the seventh book on the Provincial Edict.]\n\nUnder this law, it is no longer doubted that an action can be brought also in the name of free persons, for instance, if a four-legged animal has injured a paterfamilias or a filiusfamilias; of course, not so that account is taken of deformity—since a free body does not admit of valuation—but of the expenses incurred for treatment, of lost services, and of those which a person would lose by being rendered incapacitated.

Notes

  1. §9.1.3.prliberarum personarum nomine — "In the name of free persons" or "on account of free persons." While in the case of slaves, the owner sues based on ownership, a free body cannot be owned by another; hence, this refers to the possibility of bringing an action for damages suffered by the free person themselves (or their paterfamilias).
  2. §9.1.3.prut non deformitatis ratio habeatur ... sed impensarum — A subjunctive clause expressing purpose/result. After `sed`, `ratio habeatur` is omitted. The genitives `impensarum` (of expenses) and `operarum` (of services) depend on the omitted noun `ratio`.
  3. §9.1.3.prquasque amissurus quis esset — The relative pronoun `quas` (whose antecedent is `operarum`) with the enclitic conjunction `-que`. `amissurus esset` is a subjunctive active future periphrastic (imperfect), expressing a subjective or hypothetical future event ("which one would lose") within the subordinate `ut` clause.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §9.1.3.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:9.1.3.pr

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